Scobey's the word!

So it's been a long five months Dave has been never ending searching for jobs, applying for them, doing phone interviews, online questionnaires and tests, video interviews, sending in information and getting references together, having employers and co-workers fill out questionnaires about him, traveling to in-person interviews (all day or several days even!), and more!

We've been applying really all over the west.  At first, things were slow and we didn't have too many calls.  But then several started coming in.  We really wanted a Rapid City job, but that didn't work out (they hired internally) and figured that was our will, not God's.  He had some other great interviews but again, the internal candidates won out.

Dave applied in April for a job in Scobey, Montana (pronounced Sko-bee...Dave called it Scoobey at first.  Scoobey, doobey dooo!  Lol!).  At first he was a little resentful and as he got called for an in person interview, he was kind of mad.  But he figured he might as well give it a shot.  And I was thinking at first "really?  We're getting that desperate!?"  As he went up there the first week in May, first to Billings, and then to Scobey, he felt better and better about it as he went through the process and met more and more people.  It was a long four days, but a good experience.  A week later and day after getting back, he got the call with an offer!  He will be the Chief Executive Officer of Daniel's Memorial Healthcare Center there in Scobey.  He'll be employed by the Billings Clinic though and was very impressed with all of those he spent time with while there and was impressed with their passion for what they did, the care they want to provide to patients and the support they give to small hospitals like this one.  They pay and benefits can't be beat.  And hey, they have Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, so yeah, we can do that.  ;)  They gave him a couple of days to decide.  In the meantime, we got offers from IHC in Utah, but weren't quite sure.  Dave felt great about Scobey, and kind of knew all along he was going there.  I prayed about it and as I asked, immediately the words to the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" by Mary Brown came to mind.  We always kind of had a feeling on this one, but almost wanted to deny it.  I wasn't jumping up and down with excitement on this one, though the pay is certainly great, but this gave me sweet assurance that we're going where we need to go!

1. 1. It may not be on the mountain height
   Or over the stormy sea,
   It may not be at the battle's front
   My Lord will have need of me.
   But if, by a still, small voice he calls
   To paths that I do not know,
   I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:
   I'll go where you want me to go.
2. (Chorus)
   I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
   Over mountain or plain or sea;
   I'll say what you want me to say, dear Lord;
   I'll be what you want me to be.
3. 2. Perhaps today there are loving words
   Which Jesus would have me speak;
   There may be now in the paths of sin
   Some wand'rer whom I should seek.
   O Savior, if thou wilt be my guide,
   Tho dark and rugged the way,
   My voice shall echo the message sweet:
   I'll say what you want me to say.
4. 3. There's surely somewhere a lowly place
   In earth's harvest fields so wide
   Where I may labor through life's short day
   For Jesus, the Crucified.
   So trusting my all to thy tender care,
   And knowing thou lovest me,
   I'll do thy will with a heart sincere:
   I'll be what you want me to be.

We talked to the kids to and asked them where they wanted to live, telling them about our possibilities and discussing the pros and cons.  We told them to pray, too.  They all thought about it and prayed and each one said they felt warm and peaceful about going there.  Cal was sold when we told him all of the kids in their school get their own iPads, haha!  He said he was ready to move to Scobey right away!  Haha!  Emma thought that everything she learned about Scobey was cool though she said she'd miss her friends. Cov said "I want to move to Scoobey Doo's house!"  I think he might be disappointed when he doesn't see Scooby Doo when we get there.  Lucy is happy about Montana.  :)  So Dave accepted the offer on May 18 and is set to start the end of June.

So Scobey...Where's that, what is it?  It's north east Montana, about 15 minutes from the Canadian border, so I guess we better get our passports, eh?  There are about 1,000 people living in Scobey, and more in the towns outside of Scobey.  So way small town, way rural!  At one point, Scobey was the wheat capital of the world, and farming and ranching are still big there, and their economy is sustained also by a phone company, the school, border patrol, and mom and pop businesses.  We'd be in a branch, and have to travel about 45 minutes to an hour to get to the nearest Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint chapel (people keep asking if Dave's ready to serve as branch president...haha!).  The school is rated rather well, and there is a K12 campus, with one class for each grade, total student population of 222.  The community has a grocery store, a couple hardware and farm supply stores, digital movie theater, bowling alley, golf course, a swimming pool, library and park.  The community supports the arts, and they have a few well-supported community music groups.  They are passionate about the education there and there are many opportunities for students to do new things.  The community really cares about the hospital and wants improvement there, which is a good thing.  Dave said everyone was really friendly and nice and we're excited to start the next adventure here!  :)

Map from Wikipedia

We went up the weekend following the job offer to scope out the area as a family and check out the housing situation.  We encountered rain, hail, sun, clouds, and rainbows on the way there and saw many different fun animals.  We read books and movies on the way there, including one about Montana and a joke book that was so silly.  We stayed a couple hours south of Scobey for Friday & Saturday night and the kids enjoyed swimming, visiting parks, and watching movies at the hotel.  Scobey is small, but a nice community.  Everyone smiled and waved and many came to talk to us.   We went to about ten houses that are on the market that might work for us and have three we liked that would work well.  We met up with Don and Nancy.  He is the current interim CEO getting ready to retire (again!) and he and his wife are both born and raised in Scobey and lived other places most of their adult lives, but moved back and are going to settle in here. The are LDS and wonderful and they introduced us to a bunch of people, including the branch president & family.  It seems like some great people living here and they are excited to have us move there, and we are glad to be going there.  Our kids really liked it and said going there made them more excited to move to Scobey.  When we got home, Cov was crying "I want to go to Montana!" and we told him not yet we were going in about a month or so and he added "I want to go to Montana RIGHT NOW!"  I'm sure it will be here before we know it!  Now, time to pack!

Our He-Man bobble head kept us safe during the big hail storm on the way up.

A beautifl double rainbow came out soon after and we saw tons of wildlife, which we loved!

Our family will increase the population by around .6%!  ;)

Family Pictures 2016

We finally got professional family pictures again...it has been almost 2 1/2 years, which is hard to believe!  It's always kind of a hassle to get outfits together and everything, but worth it!  Candy Washburne did them and she was so sweet!  They had an elementary school fund raiser up here and local photographers donated their time so the proceeds would go to the school.  They turned out pretty cute!  Candy liked the coordinating I did on the outfits, Dave teased that we were in the 80's again and Cal asked if he could have a mullet since we were doing the 80's as a theme. ;) We picked the Old Penn as the location of the photo shoot.  Lucy started not feeling well during the photo shoot and got really sick later that night so she was having a hard time smiling. But overall, we had a good time, and she was way sweet! Cal said after that he wanted to take more pictures so he could come up with "pictures of perfection"!  We have more on a CD, but our computer doesn't have a CD-rom drive so we can't see the rest...

Mother's Day Weekend

Usually before a holiday, we do that theme for Mommy preschool and Mother's Day is no exception.  We do activities, read books and make crafts about that theme.  This book (that my good friend Calena gave me years ago) totally made me break down this year.  It is so happy, yet so sad to see how fast the little ones grow!  I couldn't even finish the book, and Lucy was saying "Oh Cov, let's give Mommy hugs so she's not sad!"  I was explaining they were happy tears but they were giving me hugs anyways.  They make my heart want to burst sometimes!  

The day before Mother's Day, we had to go pick him up Dave from the airport in the evening, so the kids and I decided to make a day out of it.  First, we visited Martin's Cove.  It's sad thinking this might be our last time there for a while.  That is a special place, which we love.  We had the place to ourselves, and the Senior missionaries...love them!  We got to watch a movie and I think the kids were touched by it.  I know I was :') and they teased me about not being able to hold the tears back. It is always so sweet to hear of the conviction, faith, and courage of these early Saints, even the children!  Then we headed to Alcova Reservoir.  It was too cold to get in and swim of course, but we walked along the shoreline and hiked around the area a bit.  After that it was Fort Caspar, which was very interesting.  We explored the inside part of the museum and the kids filled out their passport books to get a prize and certificate.  Then we went outside to see the Mormon Ferry and the Fort Caspar buildings. We got to see some of the movies that had been filmed in WY and all of the movie posters from them.  The kids thought it was pretty cool! I got a call from Grammie that afternoon wishing me a happy mother's day.  She is so sweet, I love her!  We went to dinner at Burger King and the kids played at their huge play place.  Then we hit up a giant park.  By this point, they were getting quite tired, but still going.  So we went to the mall for a while, but they got pretty tired and were glad it was time to go get Dad.  I have some pretty great kids and love hanging out with them.  We laughed a lot and had a fun day!  Though they all love Mommy, we were so excited to see Dad!

Cal was saying this was the strand of DNA...smart little guy!

Mother's Day was nice, except for the weather.  It was snowing...again!  Let's hope this is the last snow storm and that would be a wonderful MD present.  It was so late when we got home (almost midnight) so the kids were way tired and I knew they wouldn't be up for making breakfast though they really wanted to (and neither would Dave, who was up since before 5, and up until after midnight with lots of exhausting traveling). So I made breakfast for us, cherry brickle coffee cake was on the menu and we all really liked it.  We hurried and got off to church, which was nice.  They didn't have a theme of Mothers in church, but each speaker picked their own topic.  The kids sang "Mother I Love You" and I helped lead them since our music leader was out of town.  These guys, the are so sweet!  Covey's even been singing that song, since we practiced it at home a little bit too.  "Mudder I wuv you, mudder I do."  Bishop called me a couple of weeks ago and told me they were going to release me, since one of my counselors has already moved and we're not too far behind.  So that day, I was released.  I taught my last Sharing Time here on Joseph Smith.  The kids were so smart and so good! I'm thankful for Primary and these pure, sweet children!  Sister Clyde, my good friend  Bryndi, asked the Junior Primary kids who had felt my love and they all raised their hands.  Then she asked who had felt the love of God and Christ through me, and again all of the kids raised their hands. This was such a sweet moment for me.  Even more than they felt the love from me, I felt their love and the love they have for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I was pretty good and didn't cry too hard. ;) And in Senior Primary, many of the kids came up and gave me hugs and told me thanks and that I'd miss them.  These ones are the Spiritual Warriors needed in today's world.  I love them and hope I helped strengthen them in some small way, and as Bryndi said, I hope they will remember the love they felt from their Primary leaders and from our Father and Savior.  We also made little gifts for the moms, the kids helped me make bath bombs, which were a blast to make.  Then we gave them little papers that said "______, you're the bomb!" and they could fill in who they wanted to give it to and color the bombs.  They turned out fun and the moms loved them!  And now that I'm released, I can have a relaxing day, ha ha!  The kids though gave me this sweet card and basket of fruit. On the front it said "Thanks for being the apple of our eye!  We are so grapeful for your service!  You are berry special to us, and more importantly to God!  Orange we glad God let us learn from you!  You are one in a melon!" and then on the inside it said "Thank you a bunch, Sister Ryerse!" and there were such fun notes from the kids and other teachers inside.

After church, we ate lunch and the kids were so excited for me to open presents, so we did that first.  Their little homemade gifts are so cute, I love them!  Emma made a flower wind chime, a card at home, and a little Mother's Day questionnaire (I love those) which was adorable.  Cal gave me some pansies, a card he made, and some confetti in that bag which turned into a big confetti fight, haha!  Lucy and Cov gave me some chocolate with Daddy that he got at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  My mom gave me a chocolate bar and a book by Toni Sorenson, whose writings I always love.  We called Grandma Di and talked to her. She loved the coloring book we made for her for Mother's Day.  We made them for her and Grandma Sue, and our "grandma" here, Angie.  We put together a bunch of pictures for them to color, since that's kind of a big thing right now - stress reliever and time to meditate, etc.  And then we put personalized notes and quotes and things on there and gave it with some colored pencils.  Mom said it made her cry so I guess that was a success!  ;)  We took Angie's to her that afternoon as well and visited with her for a while.  We also delivered some of the bath bombs to some of our neighbors and the other sisters in the ward who were lonely, elderly, single, and such.  Then, for dinner, the kids and Dave (with a little help, lol!) made Monte Cristo sandwiches at my request.  They were so good!  We played our board game together, had a "chocolate festival" where we tried all of the types of chocolate I got, and then Skyped with Grandma Sue.  I am so thankful for the Moms in my life!    It was a great day with lots of time all together and snuggles, the perfect Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! This morning, it was snowing here and I'm thinking about how as mothers and women we are all so different, yet all so beautiful like snowflakes! There's not a snowflake that is "not good enough" or "wishes they were like that other snowflake" or "did things like the next one". Know how infinitely special you are to God, your children, and me, no matter how you mother! ❄❤😘❤❄

                                     

Meanwhile...spring time in Wyoming

It's been a great and snowy spring!

We've had a few warm days mixed in here when we've been able to break out the bikes and flip flops ("Reunited and it feels so good...).  But all of this snow and cold has still made us have winter on our minds and we've still been spending most of our of time inside.

The kids have been busy making their own music videos...they are so funny!  They have a band whose name changes every day, and I'm their biggest fan.

One chilly night, Cal included in his prayer: "Thank thee that I have the best mom in the world....(pause) and Dad."  Brownie points for this kid!  So not true but it's nice to hear that because a lot of times I heard that I'm the meanest mom int he world from some of my littles.  I love hearing kids pray, and Cal's prayers are always so tender.

Cov's been making this funny/evil face a lot lately...yikes!

Covey has been pretty funny lately and growing out of his clothes...we really need to pull out the next size up but we don't want to because we still need the winter-y clothes!

Cal has decided his lot in life is second place.  At their school mile run, he got second place.  At his grade car derby they had, he also got second place.  He was frustrated but happy at the same time.  It's hard being a kid sometimes.  But he's determined to get first place one of these days, ha ha!

With all of this snow on our brains, makes us think it's Christmastime!  Lucy + Cov + Whipped cream = Santa Clause.  Ho ho ho!

More sweet treats...Cal and his cake.  They loved reading the book Matilda recently, so when we had leftover chocolate cake from Daddy's birthday, Cal pretended he was Brucie.  What a comedian!

                                                       

Lots of indoor goofing off...these two are always up to something funny!

 Cal's so funny and likes to make the cheesiest grins.  One night while video chatting with Grandma Di & Grandpa Scott, Cal was being a cheeseball and smiling crazy like this the whole time!

Many games and books indoors to make the time go by!

Emma's so been enjoying Activity Days and Art lessons.  She loves to doodle and/or read every night before bed.  She also loves her Jazzy cat.  And dressing her up.  I'm not sure how much Jazzy loves this. 

Our family participated in our first Pinewood Derby ward activity!  We talked about what kind of car we wanted to build, and the kids came up with the cheese car, so that's what we did.  Dave did the carving, the kids helped sand it down to cheese wedge, helped paint it.  Dave thought of putting Speedy Gonzalez on it and calling it "Speedy Ryerse".  We had a dutch oven dinner at the church and enjoyed being with our great friends.  Then it was time for the Derby!  Emma started it down the track most of the times, but Cal and Daddy also did.  Ours won quite a few heats, the kids loved it!

I was asked to played my flute in a Jubilante Ensembles donor reception, which I did.  I played a few flute duets with Della, and "Sicilienne" by Faure.  And I had my last Spring concert with Jubilante Ensembles.  We played out in Baggs and then our hometown.  We had a great show, playing some fun things, and a good turnout!  I also got to play Sargeant Bunyon's march with the bell choir, which was a treat.   It's been so fun, I will miss all of these good, crazy people!  Though it's a small community, I'm thankful it's one that promotes the arts so much.  And it's been great to practice so much lately!

One day, Lucy, Cov and I went out to make a snowman...might as well enjoy all this spring snow, right?  Lucy wanted to make a spring snow girl, and it turned out really cute.  She couldn't give it enough hugs!  Our sweet neighbor from across the street brought the kids a big bag of gumballs for the "best snowman around".  They were so excited!  The UPS guys that drove by also gave compliments to the kids on a job well done.  They couldn't be more proud!  Might as well make the most of the snow.  ;)  By the next day, it melted so much the kids started calling it BB8 (Star Wars droid).  It was also awesome, because as the snowflakes fell that day, you could see the crystal formations as they landed in our gloves and on our hair.  Lucy's hair in particular was so fun, she looked like the ice princess!  The pictures don't do it justice, but it was beautiful!  For me, it was a lesson to look for the little things.  Sometimes we have to look down deep and hard to find beauty in life or in certain situations, but it's always there if we pay attention and look closely enough.  Even snow in late April, which everyone seems to be complaining about, he he!

Believe it or not,the sunshine has come out a few times and we've been able to enjoy it!  Bike rides, trips to the park (love that Daddy can come, too!), side walk chalk, walks, eating outside, pretending...ah, love Spring!  We had our own sidewalk chalk festival this year and I love sitting outside and playing along with them. Their side walk chalk festival got washed away when Cal drew some blood on Lucy's self-portrait art, then Lucy drew some on his with a bandaid, and then they kept drawing rude things on each other, like pee on their pants.  And then they used the runny chalk to color on themselves. 

Dave has been interviewing all over here...WY, SD, UT, ID, MT, and this next week CO.  It's been lots of traveling and in and out lately, whew!  Kind of exhausting.  But it's been good and we hope and pray we will find our next adventure soon!